Can you imagine what Americans would do if a half million uniformed soldiers of a foreign government landed in Los Angeles and started marching?

Well, it looks like if you take off the uniform, it makes a difference. WTF! Where is the Army? They are invading the US!!! ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS MARCHING FOR RIGHTS? Demanding freedom of speech? This parasites are stealing our jobs our land, our heritage, our country.

This is an invasion, pure and simple. And Americans do what? They join in the parade. HOW FRICKING STUPID ARE AMERICANS?

*******************************************

More Than 500,000 Rally in L.A. for Immigrants' Rights
by Teresa Watanabe and Anna Gorman

Joining what some are calling the nation's largest mobilization of immigrants ever, hundreds of thousands of people boisterously marched in downtown Los Angeles Saturday to protest federal legislation that would crack down on undocumented immigrants, penalize those who help them and build a security wall on the U.S. southern border.

Spirited crowds representing labor, religious groups, civil-rights advocates and ordinary immigrants stretched over 26 blocks of downtown Los Angeles from Adams Blvd. along Spring Street and Broadway to City Hall, tooting kazoos, waving American flags and chanting "Si se puede!" (Yes we can!). The crowd, estimated by police at more than 500.000, represented one of the largest protest marches in Los Angeles history, surpassing Vietnam War demonstrations and the 70,000 who rallied downtown against Proposition 187, a 1994 state initiative that denied public benefits to undocumented migrants.

The marchers included both longtime residents and the newly arrived, bound by a desire for a better life and a love for this county.

Arbelica Lazo, 40, illegally immigrated from El Salvador two decades ago but said she now owns two business and pays $7,000 in taxes annually.

Jose Alberto Salvador, 33, came here illegally just four months ago to find work to support the wife and five children he left behind; in his native Guatemala, he said, what little work he could find paid only $10 a day. "As much as we need this country, we love this country," Salvador said, waving a stick with both the American and Guatemalan flag. "This country gives us opportunities we don't get at home."

Saturday's rally, spurred by anger over legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last December, was part of what many say is an unprecedented effort to organize immigrants and their supporters across the nation. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is to take up efforts Monday to complete work on a comprehensive immigration reform proposal. Unlike the House bill, which beefed up border security and toughened immigration laws, the Senate committee's version is expected to include a guest worker program and a path to legalization for the nation's 10 to 12 million undocumented immigrants.

In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have staged demonstrations in more than a dozen cities. The Roman Catholic Church and other religious communities have launched immigrant rights campaigns, with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony taking a leading role in speaking out against the House bill and calling on his priests to defy its provisions that would make felons of anyone who aided undocumented immigrants. In addition, several cities, including Los Angeles, have passed resolutions against the House legislation and some, such as Maywood, have declared itself a "sanctuary" for undocumented immigrants.

"There has never been this kind of mobilization in the immigrant community ever," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "They have kicked the sleeping giant. It's the beginning of a massive immigrant civil rights struggle."

One of the marchers Saturday, Jose Alberto Salvador, 33, left his wife and children behind in Guatemala four months ago to cross the border into the United States so he could earn enough money to return home and buy a house.

Jorge Valdovinos, 43, is a legal immigrant from Mexico who has three US-born children and works as a financial advisor.

Amid a sea of American and Mexican flags, protesters chanted "Si Se Puede!" and waved banners in Spanish that read, "We aren't criminals" and "The USA is made by immigrants."

"I love this country as if it were my own, for the opportunities it has given me," said Laurentino Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who works at a garment factory. "The law is unjust for those who don't have papers. We come to work. We don't come to do harm to anyone."

Many of the marchers were immigrants themselves — both legal and illegal -- from Mexico and Central America. Some had just crossed the border, while others had been here for decades. There were construction workers and business owners; families with young children and people in wheelchairs. Throughout the afternoon, protesters heard speakers demand a path toward legalization and denounce HR 4437, which would tighten border enforcement and crack down on employers who hire undocumented workers.

The rally was organized by numerous unions, religious organizations and immigrant rights groups and publicized through Spanish-language media, which encouraged participants to wear white to symbolize peace and bring American flags. The mostly peaceful march stretched over 26 blocks, shutting down streets and tying up traffic around downtown for hours. Police estimated the crowd at 500,000, more than five times the size of the 1994 rally against California's Proposition 187, which would have denied services to undocumented immigrants. Participants said the massive mobilization shows that immigrants' voices must be heard and that they are contributing to the country's economy.

maybe because i'm italian that i have a sympathetic side for the mexicans, but i never viewed them as being a problem for the US. they are our southern neighbors and we should allow free travel back and forth.

I agree. This country was built by immigrants. Ask any native American. This law is intended to continue how America grew, by enslaving people and forcing them to take whatever jobs Americans can't get fair wage for and so benefits the slimy capitalists and the people who would benefit from lower wage earners ,forced enslavement, while at the same time taking away from more American jobs that could benefit the American people with higher wages and more jobs. Justification is that Americans don't want to pay taxes for their education, health care etc. but don't mind paying less for food products picked and produced by them, laundry andd homemaking services and other low paying jobs that keep prices of goods artificially lower than they should be. Cheap excuses used by some even on this site to avoid the purpose of tax gathering, that benefits those who can afford the goods and services these people provide.It's an attempt at countering the decimation of low wages and exporting of jobs and forcing the real wage of people down to an acceptable poverty level.

In Los Angeles between 500,000 and a million people filled the city’s streets Saturday to protest the new anti-immigrant bill, HR 4437. The Los Angeles Times reported it was possibly the largest gathering in the city’s history. One local Spanish-language tv station in Los Angeles put the crowd total at over two million people. "We are in favor of an immigration reform, but not in criminalizing our children,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the city’s first Latino mayor. The House of Representatives has already approved legislation that would criminalize 11 million undocumented immigrants and make it a crime for priests, nuns, health care workers and other social workers to offer them help. Other large immigrant-led protests occurred throughout the country. 50,000 people took to the streets in Denver. 20,000 rallied in Phoenix in what may have been the city’s largest protest ever. In Atlanta, 70,000 immigrant workers took part in a work stoppage on Friday. Other protests occurred in New York, Charlotte, Dallas and Sacramento.

America seems to have a disease called blame shifting and it is a cancer that contradicts all that America may have stood for. Another example of the hypocracy of the country and a large percentage of the population. Seems the statue is armedwith an uzi and not a torch anymore.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

_________________Completely sane world
madness the only freedom

An ability to see both sides of a question
one of the marks of a mature mind

maybe because i'm italian that i have a sympathetic side for the mexicans, but i never viewed them as being a problem for the US. they are our southern neighbors and we should allow free travel back and forth.

I have a sympathetic side for any immegrant. but we have immegration laws. theres only so many resources and they are poorly distributed now. we need to take care of our own. and mezico needs to do the same.

maybe because i'm italian that i have a sympathetic side for the mexicans, but i never viewed them as being a problem for the US. they are our southern neighbors and we should allow free travel back and forth.

I have a sympathetic side for any immegrant. but we have immegration laws. theres only so many resources and they are poorly distributed now. we need to take care of our own. and mezico needs to do the same.

c'mon, man....that argument has gotten rather old.

first, the main reason so many americans are complaining is because they dislike mexicans. notice that the majority, and the root cause of it all, is from the southern and mid-western states...the heartland of american bigotry.

loss of jobs? the majority of mexicans are doing jobs that americans don't want to do, or are doing jobs for much less than what americans want to do them for. they are not taking away computer programming jobs, or being hired as CEO's, or hired to replace the white american worker.

they do not add to the crime rate no more than any other group. when i read that groups of vigilantes like the so called "minutemen" were being formed to patrol our borders, then it's time the government steps in. this group is no different than the KKK of years ago. what gives this band of bigoted americans the right to feel they can patrol borders?

face the facts that america is changing and changing rapidly. we are no longer remaining an all white dominated nation.

Sorry dude, that is so ignorant I have no response to it. The basic premise of a *nation* is that is has *borders* and that the *borders* need to be defended against *invasion* from outsiders. This is grade school civics. Otherwise countries are just places on a map. Why do you think we have Passports? Could it be because other countries don't allow casual interlopers?

According to your idiotic theory the Chinese only need to send a billion and a half illegal aliens to the West Coast and then walk in and take over. No Army necessary, no war, just outnumer whitey and yer in like flint.

A nation that doesn't defend it's borders from interlopers is not a nation. It is an international bus stop, or more to the point, dump.

Unless you buy into the One World Order crap. In which case I really cannot imagine seeing eye to eye with you.

Like I said, the US is tanked. We don't even CARE enough to stop ourselves from being over run by another country. How very sad is that?